


Running Scared

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Adult Content, Angst, Drama, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-12
Updated: 2006-03-12
Packaged: 2019-02-02 12:26:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12726576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: Realising he can't avoid the consequences of his careless behaviour in relation to Carter, Jack decides to act but Daniel wonders if he is being precipitous.





	Running Scared

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

  
Author's notes: Thanks to my Beta, Gateroller!  


* * *

Sam blinked away the tears that wanted to fall. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't allow them -- him -- to make her cry. Quickly brushing away the couple of tears that escaped to run down her cheeks, she started the car and drove away, screeching her tyres in a way she hated when other drivers did it.

How could he? Had he just been using her all this time? Was she no more than a smoke screen? Fuck! She slammed her hand against the steering wheel. The bastard! He couldn't have been playing with her feelings all this time, could he? 

And Daniel, he was almost a brother... Daniel? Daniel and Jack, oh god! Was she just a fool, had they been laughing at her behind her back all this time?

She reached the intersection where she would turn off for home. For a long moment she stared both ways, then, with a firm set to her jaw, she turned in the opposite direction, towards Cheyenne Mountain.

~~

Jack clung to Daniel, resting his head against his lover's neck to let the familiar scent wash over him, gathering strength from the embrace. How had it come to this? Disgrace and, if he were lucky, a dishonourable discharge? Thank god he had Daniel; he could face anything as long as he had Daniel by his side. The squeal of tyres from outside invaded the silence of the room and Jack pressed his face deeper into Daniel's neck.

He'd been a fool, thinking everything was under control not for once considering Carter would reach the end of her tether. She was finally sick of waiting; waiting for something he'd never even considered offering. But then, neither had he given her reason to stop hoping. Fool, blind, stupid fool! He had no one to blame but himself. He had carelessly kept her at arm's length, kept her hanging on and he couldn't even say why, not really. He could pretend it was a way of deflecting interest from him and Daniel, but it was more and he knew it; Daniel knew it too. He had never pulled Jack up on it, but that didn't mean Daniel didn't see it for what it was. He was flattered damn it, a beautiful woman was interested and he played into it. Now he would have to pay for his pride.

Sighing he pulled away from Daniel, staring at him until he asked, concerned, "What?"

Taking a breath, Jack replied, "I'm going to the mountain, to see Hammond and tell him everything."

Daniel's mouth dropped open. "What? No, Jack, no, wait..."

"It's not fair to the general, he has been good to me, more than I deserve," Jack shrugged deprecatingly, "And I owe him so much. The least I owe him is respect and I can't do this to him. How will look if the flagship team of the SGC tears itself apart when the SiC reports her C.O. for fraternisation, and with a male team member? I won't do that to Hammond. If I tell him myself and resign..."

"Jack, please, listen to me. You're jumping the gun here. You don't know what Sam will do." Jack raised an eyebrow, moving towards his closet as he did so and Daniel was forced to shrug, "Okay, okay," he agreed, rubbing a hand through his hair. "She was very upset and angry but give her time to think it through. Let me talk to her first."

"You?" Jack said screwing up his face. "Daniel, she was angrier with you than she was with me! I tried to deflect her but I don't think it worked, at least not enough." Jack slipped his jacket on and picked up his keys from the table, turning towards his front door. 

"I know, I wish you hadn't done that," Daniel sighed, grabbing up his coat and following Jack out to the driveway. "It would've been better if she’d blamed me. Maybe then she wouldn't be that...that..."

"Vindictive?" Jack supplied. He unlocked his truck door and Daniel hurried around to the passenger side. "Look, I know what you are trying to say and I wish I could give you the time you want, but if I don't get in there to see Hammond before she does, it's pointless."

"And if you confess to Hammond and Sam never intended to report you?" Daniel asked as he climbed into the passenger seat.

Jack looked surprised, as if that possibility had never occurred to him. "Damn, what do I do?" 

"Let me talk to her, please?"

Jack glanced at him, eyes troubled. "Daniel, she has a head start on us, this conversation is more than likely futile. The chances are, she..."

Daniel interrupted, "So if we get there and Hammond already knows we're sunk, but if we get there before she sees him...give me a chance to talk to her first. You stay in the control room and if she’s determined to go through with it then I'll contact you so you can see Hammond first."

Jack stared at him then he started the engine and reversed out of his driveway.

~~

On arrival at the SGC, Sam Carter made her way directly to the general's office and it was only when she bumped into the sergeant outside his office to be told Hammond had gone home for the day that it actually registered how late it actually was. She glanced at her wristwatch to see it was almost nineteen hundred hours. What had she been thinking? Well, of course, she hadn't been thinking at all, she was running on pure adrenaline and it abruptly drained away leaving her feeling lost and emotionally exhausted. Suddenly she didn't know what she was doing, what she wanted. Her anger was still there, bubbling under the surface but the need to act was muted by fatigue. 

Slowly she moved along the corridors of the SGC, confused and puzzled by her discovery of the relationship of two of the men closest to her. How had she never even seen the slightest indication, the barest clue of what had been right under her nose for...? She didn't even know how long it had been going on. God, how long had the colonel been... been like that, with...with Daniel?

"MajorCarter, did you not hear me calling you?"

"What, oh Teal'c? No, I'm sorry. I...I have something on my mind."

Teal'c frowned, he rarely saw the major so distracted. "I believed you had left the base some time ago; you informed me you were looking forward to your downtime. What has occurred that you return to the SGC?"

"Oh, I had certain plans but they...didn't work out," she said airily.

"Did you visit O'Neill as you suggested?"

She stopped walking and turned to the Jaffa, eyes wide. "I didn't tell you that I was going to see the colonel," she said in a tight voice.

"That is true but I overheard you mention it to the doctor when I was in the infirmary."

"Why would you need to visit the infirmary?" she asked suspiciously.

"DanielJackson wished to leave the mountain as soon as he could and I agreed to assist him by collecting his medication from the infirmary. As I was leaving I overheard you say you intended to call on O'Neill." Teal'c studied her face and by the colour that crept up her neck into her face and by her sudden inability to meet his eyes, his suspicion was confirmed. "Come," he said, "We need to talk."

"I don't think so, Teal'c," she said, "I have nothing..."

"SamanthaCarter, it is obvious something amiss occurred at O'Neill's and I think you do indeed need to talk about it with a friend."

She looked at him, the tall, strong man who had been a friend and support for a good few years now. She had lost one confidant that day, and she felt that betrayal strongly. She nodded, following him as he led the way to his quarters even though she was very unsure if she would actually be able to tell him what she had discovered, what she was feeling. 

~~

Jack was relieved to find from the guards on the Gate that the general had left some time ago but when he checked the records he saw that Carter had indeed signed in and she had not yet left.

"See, Jack, she hasn't been able to see him," Daniel said with relief. "I'll track her down and see if I can talk with her. Try and make her see that we didn't mean to hurt her."

"You mean that I didn't mean to hurt her. You wanted to tell her all along," Jack said quietly.

"I know I did, but I also know that you were right. She would never have been ready to hear the truth then either. It would have torn the team apart. Deep down I knew that, I just hated the necessity to lie to our friends."

"I don't know what you can say to her now that will change anything," Jack said sadly.

"I don't know either, not yet. I can only be honest now, tell her the truth, whatever she wants to hear. Maybe I can get her to talk to you."

"Yeah. Or if she won't see me, try and get her to agree to my quiet retirement. She may not believe it but tell her I want to avoid the scandal for the sake of Hammond and the SGC. Daniel," he added brusquely as his lover turned to go, "Promise whatever you have to."

His eyes showing his disquiet, Daniel nodded but he didn't say anything. In truth he wondered if even his supposed talent for negotiation would be enough to persuade Sam to be generous. Somehow he doubted it. He knew Jack had never meant to hurt her but the truth was he had just the same. It looked all too likely that each of them were about to face an unexpected change in their lives.


End file.
